It's My Party: A Memoir

by Jeannette Watson

Overview

Born into a celebrity family (her father was Watson's son, who turned the company into the powerhouse it still is today, and her mother, Olive, had dated Howard Hughes and John F. Kennedy), Jeannette Watson's larger-than-life family hid a number of secrets. Behind a facade of order and glamour, Tom Watson often experienced dark moods; his depression was something he passed on to his daughter. Jeannette felt she could never measure up to her mother-a legendary beauty-and kept her nose buried in books.

Through her years as a debutante, then young wife and mother, Watson kept her feelings under wraps until she had a mental breakdown. As part of her fight to heal herself, she left her husband, taking their son and moving to New York City to experience its heady 1970s freedoms. She opened the legendary Upper East Side bookstore Books & Co., which became a gathering place for literati. Her personal life soared once more when she met her second husband, Alex Sanger, grandson of Planned Parenthood's founder, with whom she had two more sons. After a long and fulfilling run, the bookstore closed and Watson found her way down a new path to become a spiritual healer.

It's My Party is a portrait of another era, a guide to dealing with depression, and one woman's deep effort to understand herself.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781933527994
Publisher:	Turtle Point Press
Publication date:	10/10/2017
Pages:	208
Product dimensions:	6.50(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.10(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Jeannette Watson is a healer and laughing yoga instructor. She was the owner of Books & Co. and the Lenox Hill Bookstore in Manhattan.

Editorial Reviews

10/23/2017
In this charming memoir, Watson, the former proprietor of Manhattan’s bookstore Books & Co., reflects upon her remarkable, troubled life as the granddaughter of IBM’s founder and daughter of Thomas Watson, who ushered the corporation to wide success. Born in 1945, one of six children, Watson used books to escape, not just reading them but “inhabiting” them. In spite of her idyllic surroundings (a seven-acre family estate in Greenwich, Conn., with a pony and 30 dolls; an impressive summer home in Maine), Watson was wary of her father’s tempestuous nature; without warning, he could fly into a rage. The shy and sensitive Watson was often depressed, though she enjoyed observing her parents’ social life and well-known guests; her mother, a former model, had dated Jack Kennedy, and Ted’s and Bobby’s families visited. After coming out as a debutante (to a 13-piece band), attending a private high school, and studying at Sarah Lawrence, the author married and had a child; her postpartum depression landed her in a sanatorium where she received electroshock treatments. The memoir balances the bleak periods with tales of exciting travels with her parents, her interest in fashion and fashionable people, and her love of literature. Watson’s colorful descriptions recreate a singular era and gently probe the darker currents that run deeply beneath the surface of wealth and privilege. Photos. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

2017-07-17
A member of a celebrity family shares her life story.In a narrative that spans her entire life, Watson—a "Certified Laughter Yoga Leader" who founded and owned the beloved Books & Co. in New York City, which closed in 1997—also includes long chapters on her parents' childhoods. Her father was a dark, moody man who ran his house as he ran IBM; her mother was a model and dated in the Kennedy family. Rather than showing us her life, the author delivers a chronological compendium of facts, holding readers at a distance rather than permitting any intimate looks at her life. Many times, it seems like Watson is merely jotting down details on the page without regard for their relevance of how they are organized—e.g., "my father used to buy all sorts of cheeses and delighted in tasting them. He enjoyed some classical music and would listen to Tchaikovsky over and over." The author briefly discusses her bouts with depression but fails to delve deep enough into her situation to warrant much sympathy. The author's life will be interesting to those who like to read about rich, celebrity families who live in a world of their own, filled with nannies and debutante balls, summers spent on the coast of Maine, European travel ("my parents took me to Paris, and we luxuriated at the Ritz. We ran into Rose Kennedy…"), attendance at prestigious schools, etc. Watson would have done better to focus on the latter part of her life, when she ran Books & Co. and began to study meditation, hands-on healing, and laughter yoga. Any of these topics, coupled with more in-depth coverage of her battle with depression, would have made the book much more engaging. A fact-filled, tiresome memoir that leaves readers wanting more of some topics and far less of others.

Kirkus Reviews